Cost of critical care doctor visit by state

What does a critical care doctor do?

A critical care doctor typically works in an intensive care unit and takes care of critically ill patients. They see patients daily, consult specialists when required, change settings on ventilators, and order different medications to assist with recovery from a wide variety of critical illnesses.

What is a critical care patient?

A critical care patient is a patient that requires intense and specialized nursing care, aggressive monitoring, and the support of multiple organs to sustain their life. 

• Specialized nursing care: Critical care patients often require their own nurse or share a nurse with only one other patient. They often need medications or treatments two to four times an hour and need to be monitored at all times. These nurses are often trained to use equipment that nurses who treat less sick patients never use. 
• Aggressive monitoring: Critical care patients often have special monitors that allow doctors and nurses to monitor blood pressure, the pressure within the heart itself, and pressure within the brain every second. This allows for near-instant detection of problems and rapid adjustment of medications.
• The support of multiple organs: A critical care patient may be on a ventilator, a machine that assists the lungs. They may also be on dialysis, a machine that assists the kidneys, and a variety of devices that help the heart to pump blood through the body. 

The definition of a “critical care patient” seems complex because it is poorly defined and changes from hospital to hospital. Each hospital has different rules for what type of patient must be in an ICU and what kinds of conditions must be treated in the ICU.

What does critical care include?

Critical care includes specialized nursing care, aggressive monitoring, and support of multiple organs with medical equipment. It also includes administering medications multiple times a day and “drips'' of medications that are continuously given through intravenous (IV) lines. 

In summary, critical care includes all of the medications, treatments, and monitoring that are performed for patients with severe and deadly medical conditions that require specialized care to survive and recover from.

Where do critical care doctors work?

Critical care doctors work in intensive care units within a hospital. There are multiple types of intensive care units such as surgical ICUs, medical ICUs, neurology ICUs, and cardiac ICUs. Some of the doctors that work in these ICUs also see patients in a clinic after their discharge from the hospital and others only work within the hospital. This depends upon the individual doctor and hospital that the ICU is located in.

Is critical care the same as emergency medicine?

No, critical care is not the same as emergency medicine. While emergency medicine doctors provide critical care for short periods of time, they are not traditionally thought of as critical care doctors. While emergency medicine physicians can start nearly all of the treatments that critical care patients need to survive, they are not trained to monitor these treatments for a long period of time while a patient recovers. Patients that receive critical care in an emergency room will be transferred to an ICU for ongoing care from a critical care doctor.

Is critical care a specialty?

Critical care is both a specialty in medicine and a type of care that is provided by multiple types of physicians. For example:

• A critical care doctor is an internal medicine doctor that undergoes several more years of training. They treat patients with multiple complex medical conditions.
• A pediatric critical care doctor is a pediatrician that has completed several more years of training focused on critically ill children.
• A neonatologist is a pediatrician that is focused on the care of critically ill infants in the first few months of life.
• A neurologist can specialize in neurocritical care for the treatment of patients with severe brain and spinal cord injuries. 
• A surgeon can specialize in surgical critical care for the treatment of patients who recently had complex surgeries such as transplants, trauma surgery, or are severely ill following more common surgeries. 
• Cardiologists can work in a cardiac ICU for the care of patients who have had recent heart attacks, recent heart surgeries, or another condition that causes damage to the heart.

What can I expect from a critical care unit?

The world of critical care is complex and varies greatly based on your or your loved ones' illness and the type of care required. Critical care units can go from calm to incredibly busy, noisy, and intense when a medical emergency occurs. A large amount of staff tends to work in even a small ICU and you can expect to see several new individuals every day. 

Overall, an ICU is a place that is laser-focused on the recovery of patients. Many people find them very similar to how an operating room looks on television: clean, sterile, sparse, and with large amounts of medical equipment. There are few comforts of home such as bathrooms, televisions, or eating areas. Once a patient has recovered from their period of critical illness, they will be transferred to a traditional hospital floor that has more features of a hotel room and less in common with an operating room.